Arizona congresswoman shot, local chief of staff safe

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday when an assailant opened fire outside a grocery store during a meeting with constituents, killing at least five people and wounding several others in a rampage that rattled the nation.

Giffords was among at least 10 people wounded, and the hospital said her outlook was “optimistic” and that she was responding to commands from doctors despite having a bullet go through her head. The hospital said a 9-year-old child was among the dead, and a U.S. Marshal said a federal judge was also fatally shot in the attack.

Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said an unspecified number of her staff members were wounded in the shooting. Congressional officials said an aide to the Democrat was killed, and President Barack Obama said five people died in all.

Pia Carusone, a 1999 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School who serves as Giffords’s chief of staff, was not involved in Sunday’s shooting.

Mimi Carusone, Pia’s mother, said her daughter was in Washington D.C. when the shooting happened, but was en route to Tucson on Saturday night in a private plane. Pia, 30, has been Giffords’s chief of staff for about a year, her mother said, and has been working in politics throughout the country since her graduation from Bard College in 2003.

A number of reports have noted how Giffords was one of several democrats politically targeted by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement after supporting Obama’s health care bill, and her Tucson office was vandalized after she voted for the bill in March. The Associated Press reports that Palin listed Giffords’s seat as one of the top “targets” in the November elections because of the lawmaker’s support for the health care law.

Police have a man in custody for the attack, but no reports are pointing to the shooting being politically motivated.

48 Responses

Well all my former co-workers and current friends in Law Enforcement have been waiting for something like this to happen It was bound to happen. The propaganda blitz coming out of Washington since Nov 2nd has been creating a lot of very bad feelings out there with the help of the Media whipping up an almost frenzy. And the word is out that if you got a Patronage Job or a Union Gov’t job your in danger and that you need to take over the boards on the large nation wide media outlets..Poor losers and still can’t face the music..
.
We have 43 million living below the poverty line, 25 million have given up looking for work, another few million still looking for work..Meanwhile the Elite Millionaire Liberal Demoncrats in Washington are having lavish parties, spending trillions, and giving American’s the big one finger Salute as they were leaving, which is the last one in a long line of One Finger Salutes they have given us hard working taxpaying American’s. And to top it all his royal high-ass has been flying here and there taking lavish vacations around the world doing absolutely nothing to improve the status of the nearly 100 million people who are suffering, losing their livelihoods, losing their homes and their children are going to be hungry, due to the Demoncrats policies and anti-business in cahoots with the Unions that drove thousands of Manufacturers out of the Country and then their propaganda tries to make the Republicans the bad guys. One prime example the Presidental order directing that all bids for government contracts will go to UNION ONLY Companies..Another example The Government which owns how much of GM? Allowed GM to build an engine plant in Tijuania Mex. taking away more American Jobs!

Remember the Demoncrat Motto: Deny everything and make Counter accusations”.. Why do you think Nancy Pelosi bragged about bringing in Steven Speilberg to create the next Demoncrat spin on reality, he specailizes in Fantasy, which is about where the Demoncrats and the President reside right now..So with all the misery and suffering brought down upon this country by the Demoncrats, and their abhoring Social Behavior by the Elite Millionaire Liberal Demoncrat Leadership this event was about to happen and one should expect more of it as people become frustrated with their suffering and watching their children suffer and as noted, they know who the enemy is! Unfortunately this Lady made herself a big target with her Corner meetings and such which most Arizonians I know said was just publicty stunts and a grab at the illegal Mexican vote..As I said, my friends in the Police and Sherriff’s Dept’.s have been waiting for it to happen but just didn’t know where. So as the Liberal Left try now, or will use this event, to try and turn the finger of blame onto the Right wing gun owners and all that poppycock, the real person responsbile starts at the White House on down through the Demoncrat leadership.. To many people are suffering for the works of the Socialist Demoncrat Liberal Left…and that is a reality Speilberg will not be able to spin..The people know the truth and where to place the blame and we kicked out 65 of the perpetators in Nov…Here’s something else to think about,.You might ask yourself why has FEMA been spending millions for bodybags, cheap coffins and preparing large burial trenches across the country..

Gee, I wonder why the Tea Party people have the comments turned off regarding this story. Can’t they explain, as Palin aide Rebecca Mansour has that the symbols on the map are surveyors marks not targets. And I have monkeys flying out of my …..

Eddie,
I know it will go against everything Rush and Hannity tell you.
However this nations period of greatest prosperity was also the years of the the highest union membership.
Also seriously its the republicans pushing free trade.
Unless we are going to pay people like we are a third world country we can’t survive if a factory is free to move where they can pay pennies a day to their employees.

What a bummer for the Liberal Demoncrats, turns out the young man was not a Ranting Gun toting Right winger as the Media immediately tried to paint him, but in reality, a Ranting Dope Smoking, Gun Toting Left Winger who suddenly realized the Elite Liberal Millionaire Demoncrats in Washington and the Nation were BS’ing him and he figured it out and probably went into a THC overload….So he took out one of their own…..I stell place the blame on the Elite Millionaire Liberal Demoncrat Ruling Class starting in the White House on down…You created a monster and their are probably hundreds or thousands more ofhis type out there learning the truth which can be spun anymore by Speilberg or anyone else..It is all coming home to Roost…How sad….

LoganReed, you missed mentioning one very important piece of information to back up your statement, which I would expect you to do…Those employees were FORCED to join the Union, via various means of persuasion including the famed Union Thugs aka Peer Pressure…funny how you should forget that part of reality…I wondeer why…..And to show your ignorance, I rarely if ever listen to Hannity, or Limbaugh, but maybe you should, but I bet the fear of hearing the truth will be more than you can handle versus the Union and Demoncrat produced Propaganda and would give you a real headache and maybe you also would……No I won’t go there…

Typical, typical. Hey eddie, keep on hating and feeding the flames with your ignorance. Please, please, don’t let reality get in the way of a good rant and display to the public your complete and total lack of class. Be comforted by the knowledge that your psychotic ravings will survive on the internet long after you are dead and gone and people will either laugh or pity you for the next century. So left wing he admired Hitler. YOU have blood on YOUR hands, baby. People like you are directly responsible for the culture of violence and the cancer of hate that has engulfed this nation. Fortunately, many many more people actually are kind, caring and compassionate. Maybe you should step away from the keyboard, send flowers to the families of the victims and check yourself into CDPC for the treatment you so desperately need.

Eddie, you really swung for the fences on that one huh? That is by far the craziest rant I have ever heard in my life. I guess you are entitled to your opinion though. Why do people have to take tragic events and try to use them to push their psychotic babble that only divides Americans?

I wonder if this was a republican if things would have been the same?? Probably not. Too bad it was a white kid and not a minority who was the shooter, then teh DEms woudl think about immigration reform.
This is tragic and don’t believe it should have happened but Palin ahd nothing to do with it. It goes to show you people are sick in this world. They shoudl eb removed from society instead of trying to coddle them. My heart goes out to ALL the victims and not just this senator which I think the medica is really going over board on. I bet though if she was a Republican this would not be getting so much publicity. This guy certainly should not have been given a pistol permit. Blame the FEDS- they are the ones who are to do the background checking. I guess they failed on this one but won’t take any responsibility for it.

What a horrific crime. As time goes by, we can try to make sense of it. Blaming anyone else but the perpetrator seems ludicrous. Speculating as to his mental health, political motivation or anything else seem non-productive. Once the shock wears off, maybe we will know how to prevent tragedies like this one from happening again. It helps to know, at least for me that it is all part of God’s plan. Something good must come out of it. Let’s hope.

This was a sad event, and the moments of silence around the country are truly moving. But eight soldiers/marines have died in Afghanistan this month, so far, and I see no reports of tributes or moments of silence. Let’s not forget: there are young men and women dying every day on behalf of us. Remember and honor them, too………..

get real- you must be a true democrat who wants our rights to be taken away. I own several pistols by the way and have a concealed carry. I have earned it and I am a true believer of protecting myself and my family.Also a member of the NRA. I certainly would not go around on a shooting spree because what I may think is right or wrong. This kid was a nut job and should not have been allowed to purchase a gun. If you know anything about getting a permit you know it is a lengthy procedure and you have to go through a serious Federal back ground check with finger printing- but obvious you don’t know anything about that becuase you are so anti-guns it is not funny. Maybe someday you will be in a situation where you wished you had a gun to protect yourself or loved one. The FEDS screwed up by allowing him to purchase a handgun. This kid was looked over in socety. Now everyone comes out and says he was odd- well noone tried to get him any helpdid they???

I’ve seen that he was angry over her not being lberal enough. Does palin now tell whack jobs across the country to murder blue dogs?

Palin uses a phrase like “We have to target that seat” and she’s an accomplice to murder yet Obama say “They bring a knife, we bring a gun…” and it’s just a turn of phrase?

Has this loon actually been associated with the tea party or have we done what Obama warned against in the wake of the Hassan massacre and jumped to conclusions. Well, if it’s good enough for Mayor Bloomberg (who just assumed that the racical Islamist who drove a bomb laden truck into Times Square was a tea partier or such) I guess it’s good enough more most of the media. It looks from what I’ve seen that his readings were mostly pretty left wing. I don’t see the Communist Manifesto at alot of Tea Party events.

The shooter isn’t left wing. He isn’t right wing. He doesn’t have a political philosophy. He is a nut. He doesn’t think like Palin or Pelosi or anyone inbetween. He doesn’t think like any remotely normal person. That’s because he’s crazy. Can we get off blaming Palin for ‘crosshairs’ or Obama for bringing ‘a gun’? They didn’t set any tone, any atmosphere, any inciting. Maybe he comes from a long line of sad people who take orders from their dog or the television reruns of Mr. Ed or the aliens camped out under the bed. Not conservatives! Not progressives! Stop it!

Palin’s run for the presidency is over. It was only a tease anyways. She never intended to run. You don’t quit the governorship 2 years early. Governorships groom future presidential candidates. Palin quit ‘cuze she can earn more $ over the next 2 years being a celebrity of sorts. It was/is her window of opportunity to earn big $ compared to her (governor’s) salary. More importantly, she is unqualified to be president. Her political map depicting crosshairs and the names of candidates from the mid-term Congressional election whom she targeted for defeat, is totally irresponsible and inflammatory. Hopefully her celebrity status has ended too.